Hollywood Week: Awards Season Shake Up, Berlin Tilda Swinton, Timothée Chalamet, Media Hires

Details
Category: Entertainment News
Published on Saturday, 15 February 2025 11:45
Written by Janet Walker

The Academy Awards race for Best Picture experienced a shake-up this week, as Anora director Sean Baker netted three unexpected prizes for Best Picture at the Critics Choice Awards, the Director's Guild Award and Producer's Guild Award.

Awards Season

Anora, the sex-worker fairy tale fantasy film, starring Academy Award nominee Mikey Madison, written and directed by Sean Baker, received a huge boost in its Oscar hopes, as both the Director's Guild Awards, and the Producer's Guild Awards honored Anora with the top prizes, and Baker with the top prize in Directorial Achievement in a Feature Film increasing his odds to win the same at the upcoming Oscars.

Anora Review – Bold, Daring, Strong Courageous Performances

In the history of the Director's Guild Awards, only eight times, after winning the DGA top prize, has the winner failed to win the Best Picture Oscar. Should Baker be number nine on the list, he will be in good company, as Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, Ron Howard, Ang Lee, Rob Marshall, Ben Affleck, Sam Mendes, and Anthony Harvey, have also secured the DGA's top prize in Directorial Achievement and the picture did not go on to win the Academy Award.

Berlin Film Festival Opens – Celebs Call Out Extremism

The 75th Berlin International Film Festival opened this week as both the films and celebrities in attendance used the platform to call out extremism, which seems to be a simmering concern in Europe and clearly a rolling boil in the U.S.

Politics have always intermingled with the entertainment industry, and for Europeans it is no different. The recent collapse of the German government gave way to snap elections which are taking place on the last day of the Berlinale, and if the election were held today, the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has the advantage over Chancellor's Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats (SPD). The elections hang like a drape over the festival.

The Substance Review – A Shocking, Electrifying Jolt of Injected Adrenaline, A Must See

As the festival began the Scottish born actress Tilda Swinton, was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Throughout her forty-year film career, beginning in 1986 with Caravaggio, director Derek Jarman, which won the Silver Bear has captivated audiences with her ability to personify a wide range of characters. Her portrayal of ethically challenged corporate attorney Karen Crowder, in the 2007 legal drama Michael Clayton, directed by Tony Gilroy, earned her the industry's highest honors. Over her career she has earned 184 nominations and secured 78 total wins.

When she accepted the Lifetime Achieve Award "Swinton called out what she termed the "entitled domination and the astonishing savagery of spite, state-perpetrated and internationally enabled mass murder… unacceptable to human society. These are facts. They need to be faced. So, for the sake of clarity, let's name it. The inhumane is being perpetrated on our watch. I'm here to name it without hesitation or doubt in my mind, and to lend my unwavering solidarity to all those who recognize the unacceptable complacency of our greed-addicted governments who make nice with planet wreckers and war criminals, wherever they come from," reported The Hollywood Reporter.

Swinton, who also announced she was taking a break from acting, and stated she won't be filming for the remainder of the year, was not the only celebrity using their platform to call out the gathering storm clouds of political unrest.

Hollywood Week: FireAid Raises $100M, Critics’ Choice, Grammys, Super Bowl LIX

A Complete Unknown, star Timothee Chalamet, also spoke to the media on the political upheaval, especially in America, which is where the star splits his time between coasts with homes in both New York City and Beverly Hills, California.

"It's in the nature of his music, the warnings against cult-like figures," Chalamet told journalists when asked what he learned from the U.S. singer-songwriter about how to deal with the current state of the world. "My interpretation is just be wary of any savior-like figures," said Chalamet, whose Dylan biopic was being shown in the festival's non-competition Special section," Reuters reported.

Media Hirings

Fox Hires Lara Trump

Former Republican National Chairperson Lara Trump, daughter-in-law of President Trump, will be hosting her own show, "My View with Lara Trump," a weekly hour long slotted for 9:00pm Saturday. She is expected to provide thought analysis on the state of the nation, hosting guests who will provide insight into a variety of topics.  

"As I cover the success of The Golden Age of America, I look forward to where this time will lead our country and where this opportunity will lead me in the future, " Lara Trump said in a statement, noting she was thrilled to bring her voice back to the network," Yahoo reported.

Janet Walker, Screenwriter, Director, Producer, Launches HL-Productions

CNN Hires Rahm Emmanuel

Rahm Emmanuel, former White House Chief of Staff to Barack Obama, Biden's Ambassador to Japan, and Mayor of Chicago, has been hired by CNN as a Senior Political and Global Affairs Commentator.

"A political veteran with more than three decades of experience in Democratic politics, Emanuel most recently served as the 31st United States Ambassador to Japan during the Biden Administration. Previously, Emanuel served as Mayor of the City of Chicago from 2011 to 2019. During his time as Mayor, Emanuel focused on educational gains, quality of life, and Chicago's economic competitiveness on the global stage," a CNN statement indicated.  

 

Janet Walker is the publisher, founder, and sole owner of Haute-Lifestyle.com. A graduate of New York University, she has been covering international news through the Beltway Insider, a weekly review of the nation's top stories, for more than a decade.  A general beat writer/reporter and entertainment/film critic, she is also an accomplished news/investigative news/crime reporter and submitted for Pulitzer Prize consideration "Cops Conspire to Deep Six Sex Assaults" in the Breaking News Category and was persuaded to withdraw the submission. Ms. Walker has completed five screenplays, "The Six Sides of Truth," "The Assassins of Fifth Avenue," "The Wednesday Killer," "The Manhattan Project," and the sci-fi thriller "Project 13: The Last Day." She is a member of the Los Angeles Press Club, the National Writers Union, and a former member of the International Federation of Journalists.

Haute News

Haute Tease

  • Seven Ways to Thrill Your Teen in Scottsdale - Attention Holding, Engaging, Family Fun

    So you’re planning an outing and want to keep your kids engaged with the family long enough to log a lasting memory? No sweat! OK, well maybe a little sweat… it is Scottsdale after all.

     

  • Russie - Corée ou l’inutile Rapprochement

    Le rapprochement annoncé entre la Corée du Nord et la Russie tend à se présenter comme la création d'un bloc asiatique capable de concurrencer la sphère occidentale. Mais les intérêts trop divergents des deux pays démontre les limites de l'exercice.  

  • Saban Films Takes Aaron Eckhart Starrer “Line of Duty”

    Saban Films announced they have acquired U.S. rights to Steven C. Miller’s “Line of Duty.”  Penned by Jeremy Drysdale, the action thriller stars Golden Globe® nominee Aaron Eckhart, Courtney Eaton, Dina Meyer, Emmy® nominee Giancarlo Esposito and Ben McKenzie.   

  • Newfest’s 32nd Annual LGBTQ Fest Opens with Francis Lee’s Ammonite

    NewFest, New York’s leading LGBTQ film and media organization and one of the world's most respected LGBTQ film festivals, announced today that it will open this year with the NYC premiere of Francis Lee’s much anticipated film AMMONITE.

     

  • World News: A New World Diplomacy

    The foundation for a new world diplomacy, the United States, China, Russia and the others, President Donald Trump has conveyed to European allies the relationships in place since the end of World War II, are shifting in value.

     

  • Paul Thomas Anderson in Conversation Following a Presentation of MONDO HOLLYWOOD at AFI FEST 2014 Presented by Audi

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, LOS ANGELES, CA,November 5, 2014– AFI FEST 2014 presented by Audi, a program of the American Film Institute, announced today that Paul Thomas Anderson will present the 1967 documentary MONDO HOLLYWOOD (DIR Robert Carl Cohen), a film which influenced his upcoming feature, INHERENT VICE, on the afternoon of Saturday, November 8 at the Egyptian Theatre. Following the screening Anderson will be in conversation with Cohen.

Arts / Culture